For head coach Brad Larsen, he's seen his team suffer a few lopsided losses this year but never seemed upset with his team's effort to this point. It was a different story Saturday night when he spoke to the media.
"We should be embarrassed, period," Larsen said. "There's nothing more to say about it. To go from a game where we played a pretty solid game, a full 60, high compete level … I saw some guys giving in tonight."
It's also fair to wonder how any team in the NHL would have fared against the Panthers on this night. Florida entered on a roll, including a 7-0-1 record in its last eight games and 41 goals in the previous seven contests. The Panthers led the NHL in 5-on-5 goals and goals in home games, were 20-3-0 in FLA Live Arena and rolled over a pretty good Dallas team on that same ice surface Friday night by a 7-1 score.
Put another way, the Blue Jackets aren't the first team to be on the receiving end of this kind of performance by Florida this year -- even the defending Stanley Cup champs took a 9-3 loss to the Panthers two weeks ago -- and there was little doubt the team with the best record in the NHL was on its game again Saturday night.
On the opening shift, Elvis Merzlikins stopped Sam Bennett in front, but the CBJ goalie never could quite get back into position and was still down and out when Carter Verhaeghe shoveled the puck into the net to give Florida a 1-0 lead just 46 seconds into the game.
Gustav Nyquist then went to the penalty box at 2:00 for tripping, and seven seconds later it was 2-0 when former CBJ forward Anthony Duclair ripped a one-timer past Merzlikins from the high slot.
From there, there wasn't much stopping the high-flying Panthers. Defenseman MacKenzie Weegar led the way, scoring his 100th goal and adding three assists. Fellow blueliner Aaron Ekblad also had three assists, while Jonathan Huberdeau had a 1-1-2 line to move into a tie for the NHL lead in points. He was joined in multipoint evenings by Verhaeghe (2-0-2), Anton Lundell (2-0-2), Bennett (1-1-2), Duclair (1-1-2), Ryan Lomberg (1-1-2) and Sam Reinhart (0-2-2).
Florida also finished with a 51-30 edge in shots on goal, a 39-14 edge in scoring chances at 5-on-5 per
Natural Stat Trick
and a 4.45-1.18 edge in expected goals at 5-on-5.
"That's the best team we've faced, there's no question," Larsen said. "From what I've seen and who we've played, whether they're the best team, that's the best someone has played against us. It's probably a combination of both (their play and ours). They're at the top of the league for a reason. They're a fast, hard-nosed team. They smell blood. They attacked the game. They defended hard.
"What do you say? They completely dominated us, period. There's nothing more to say."
Third-period goals from Nyquist and Boone Jenner at least kept Sergei Bobrovsky from posting a shutout against his former team. Merzlikins gave up four goals on 15 shots in 13:28, then Joonas Korpisalo made 31 saves on 36 shots the rest of the way.
"It's the best hockey team in the league, I'd say," Werenski said afterward. "With how fast they are, how well they play structurally, I think it's probably a mix of both -- how good they are and us shooting ourselves in the foot. It's one thing to lose hockey games, it's another thing to lose in the fashion we did today."
One game after everything went right for the Blue Jackets, the shoe was on the other foot Saturday night.
"We had a great game (Thursday)," Nyquist said. "That's the league. You have to follow it up. You can't just play one good game and take the next off. … I just think we played a horrendous game."
